At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, a group of Cornishmen exploit demand by establishing a network selling flour cut with china clay…
Category Archives: Crime and Criminals
Death or Victory: The Bodmin Jail Riot of 1827
Penal treadwheels were a terrifying instrument of punishment, and Bodmin Jail’s was especially bad…
Two Shillings and Sixpence: A Cornish Wife Sale
From a time when such things were commonplace…
Effigy Burning in 1800s Cornwall
Nobody was safe from the Cornish cult of effigy burning: criminals, perverts, landlords, mine-owners…
The Piskie Trap Podcast: Beatrice Small and Ill-wishing
Listening time: one hour ‘The Piskie Trap’ is a podcast produced by Keith Wallis, a local folklorist from Tywardreath. In his broadcasts he discusses the ghostly legends of Jamaica Inn and Bodmin Gaol, witchcraft trials and mermaid legends. Keith was kind enough to invite me to talk on his latest show, specifically about fortune-tellers andContinue reading “The Piskie Trap Podcast: Beatrice Small and Ill-wishing”
Gallows Bell: The Murder of Joseph Burnett
The tragic story of a Lostwithiel Town Sergeant’s death at the hands of a British soldier…
The Grampound Potwallopers: Corruption in Georgian Cornwall
A major parliamentary scandal in Georgian Cornwall…
Who Killed ‘Judas’ Penrose?
How a Cornishman came to America, started a newspaper, and got involved in trade unions, politics, masonic lodges, racial tension, married women…and paid the ultimate price…
Murder, Debt, Riot: Richard Holloway, Redruth Solicitor
The career of a local solicitor laid bare, with an overview of his cases, financial problems, and harrowing family tragedy…
Paul Rabey and The Foreign Girls’ Protection Society: They Died With Their Shoes On, Part Five
A sinister and extraordinary post…Victorian Cornwall’s most notorious con-artist and Victorian London’s dark underworld…an unpleasant conclusion to this series…
Francis Edwards ~ The Cornish Historian 